G Peterson Posted February 15 Report Posted February 15 I tried searching for more information, but I can't see a discussion about the strange water mechanics. I am experiencing weird behavior where water isn't filling in when I remove a source water block from a lake. Put a cube of dirt in a block of water, remove it, and the water doesn't fill back in - even if it is in the middle of an ocean. I find it hard to believe this might be a feature(?)
LadyWYT Posted February 15 Report Posted February 15 3 hours ago, G Peterson said: I am experiencing weird behavior where water isn't filling in when I remove a source water block from a lake. Put a cube of dirt in a block of water, remove it, and the water doesn't fill back in - even if it is in the middle of an ocean. I find it hard to believe this might be a feature(?) No, that actually is working as intending, at least in this point in the game's development. Water in Vintage Story does not act the same way that it does in the other block game. Water sources have to be placed individually, either via bucket or the creative menu(though if using creative there's probably a world edit tool to quickly fill a space with water). It is a bit cumbersome, may or may not be subject to change in the future. Overall though, I don't get the impression that the player is meant to be able to easily create large bodies of water, outside of world edit. 2
EnbyKaiju Posted February 15 Report Posted February 15 2 hours ago, LadyWYT said: Overall though, I don't get the impression that the player is meant to be able to easily create large bodies of water, outside of world edit. That's my take on it too. I've been working with that understanding since they introduced the no infinite water block creation option, and it makes for a great additional challenge (and also prevents metagaming/min-maxing). With the introduction of so many more elevation-based water sources my hope is that the VS team start giving us new ways to do irrigation. As at the moment I'm stuck using irrigation mods to make something that feels both realistic and works with the current mechanics. I think once they eventually get rivers working right, and we get a proper water table it'll work out a lot better for what they have been planning. 2
G Peterson Posted February 18 Author Report Posted February 18 On 2/15/2026 at 2:02 PM, LadyWYT said: Overall though, I don't get the impression that the player is meant to be able to easily create large bodies of water, outside of world edit. Well... I don't see how filling in a single block in the surface of a lake is "easily creating large bodies of water". As it is I have to be careful when I am building a base around water because I can accidentally destroy a water block and then have some strange "pit" in my body of water - with fluid pouring into an infinite black hole or something... I'm not worried about game balancing - I'm just looking for something that behaves even remotely like real world. 1
EnbyKaiju Posted February 18 Report Posted February 18 22 minutes ago, G Peterson said: I'm not worried about game balancing - I'm just looking for something that behaves even remotely like real world. From what I've gathered from their updates this is just one step towards the eventual river goal. So all those rivulets would flow into other bodies of water, especially rivers. Which is where the realism of it all makes more sense. For now I think the best fit, and I was playing around with this idea a bit lately, is for any block that spawns a rivulet to lead to at the very least some kind of pond or lake, or even into a tunnel underground to make an underground lake. Just a body of water for all that water to end up in makes more sense. That way we don't end up with Minecraft waterfalls all over the place. Since they already did the "if a rivulete spawns it digs a path" thing, I can see them doing that too, which would make for some really interesting hill/mountain/steppe-based water features and be a lot more interesting for those of us that don't play with infinite water block creation. 1
williams_482 Posted February 19 Report Posted February 19 It seems like most of the problems with Minecraft water replenishment come down to how easy it is to create those infinite sources. Water flows from two adjacent tiles can quickly fill up a large space. If instead three or four adjacent tiles are required, then far more labor is needed to fill large areas from scratch, but the weird holes that form when beaches and small islands are dug up can be easily patched. Especially because Water Source vs Water Flow is a much less meaningful distinction for VS than for MC. With default settings in VS, a single water source block can be used to create any number of additional water sources, while in MC you really need to set up that infinite source generator because each bucket consumes a source block. 1
EnbyKaiju Posted February 19 Report Posted February 19 2 minutes ago, williams_482 said: It seems like most of the problems with Minecraft water replenishment come down to how easy it is to create those infinite sources. Water flows from two adjacent tiles can quickly fill up a large space. If instead three or four adjacent tiles are required, then far more labor is needed to fill large areas from scratch, but the weird holes that form when beaches and small islands are dug up can be easily patched. Especially because Water Source vs Water Flow is a much less meaningful distinction for VS than for MC. With default settings in VS, a single water source block can be used to create any number of additional water sources, while in MC you really need to set up that infinite source generator because each bucket consumes a source block. Agreed, which is why I'm trying to approach this from the position of the default experience not to be able to generate infinite water blocks. (which I know isn't the case, but it's how I play and I like that limitation). If you consider each water block emanating from a hill/mountain an actual source, be it a spring, the output of an underground resoviour, whatever, then a single one does have the possibility of being an effective source at least smaller bodies of water. This is all long-term dev stuff for the VS team I'm sure. Personally I'm a bit more of a fan of the infinite water source generation in some respects. e.g. I think if you place a block in the ocean or a pond it should refill to the full state after you pull it out, so you should be able to make say a canal from a large enough water source without needing a bucket or creative mode, but I don't see that same rationality behind grabbing a bucket of pond water and building your own massive lake out of it or making a metagaming farm of tiny infinite water sources. Balancing acts. It always comes down to balance. To paraphrase Gniess, a geologist who makes incredible YT videos about this stuff, it's about knowing when realism starts being a problem, and accepting that you have to pull back from that point.
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